Inside the World of Warner Premiere Motion Comics

Last Friday,
Warner Bros launched Warner Premiere Motion Comics, digital versions of
comics with sound and limited animation. First up in the releases, the
first issue of Watchmen, transformed into a 25 minute experience, and available for a limited time free on iTunes (via the ew.com website. Today, Batman: Mad Love was made available on Xbox live and Verizon’s Vcast service.

For more on the initiative, we spoke with Diane Nelson, President of
Warner Premiere and Thomas Gewecke, president of Warner Bros. Digital
Distribution.

Newsarama: Diane, let’s begin with you. what are the origins of
this new initiative? What was the need for this kind of material from
Warner Bros.’ perspective?

Diane Nelson: Warner Premiere, as the direct to consumer
production arm of Warner Bros. Pictures, is developing and producing
high-quality content for direct to DVD and Digital Distribution. Our
opportunity and value to these mediums is our depth and breadth of
wonderful brands and Intellectual Property (IP). DC Comics is arguably
one of the most valuable stables of properties in the WB library, and
we felt it made perfect sense to launch our digital original content
initiative with a slate of Motion Comics.

NRAMA: Why did you take the extra step to make the presentation
a form of semi-animation that's been seen before, rather than just
present the original works in their static form?

DN: There are two key reasons we chose to adapt the underlying
comics the way we did for Motion Comics. The first, and most important,
is to demonstrate a strong respect and commitment to the original art
and comic form. These Motion Comics are not intended to be hybrid films
or TV experiences; they are enhanced experiences of the original
comics, designed to maximize this particular medium and consumer
expectations within the medium. The second was to understand the
digital medium and offer content that is crafted to leverage the
strengths of the digital experience. There are others who are brining
comic books to digital by simply offering the static strips. For Warner
Bros., this felt like a less compelling way to serve up these beautiful
creations. It is for this reason that we consulted with Dave Gibbons
throughout the development of the Watchmen Motion Comic. Dave
and Alan Moore understood and fully maximized -- even redefined -- the
published comic format. We knew Dave would bring the same perspective
to how we brought Watchmen to life digitally. For all of our
digital content production, we believe there is an important balance
between story and understanding the strengths of the digital experience.

NRAMA: Clearly, Watchmen and a Batman tie-in make
sense for debut releases given the respective film promotion, but what
criteria are you looking at for future comics that will be treated in
this fashion?

DN: There are a variety of factors that go into the selection of
properties and stories that we choose to develop. As mentioned
previously, we of course prioritize the strongest stories; in
particular, stories that we believe will lend themselves creatively to
the medium and the techniques we use to bring the comics to life.
Additionally, given that our goal is to bring fans not only to these
Motion Comics, but potentially to introduce new fans to the original,
published comics, as well. For that reason, we do factor in the
prominence and, to a degree, broad appeal of certain characters and
stories. However, as we expand our slate, our hope is to move to comic
stories and characters that may be less well known by a broad audience.

Finally, we do look at the core art assets to make sure they can be
effectively utilized; we're committed to staying as true to the
original art as we possibly can. In the current treatment, what seems
to work best is art with sharp color contrasts and well posed
characters. We are finding less success with dense color pallets that
bleed together or too much line art; though we hope to evolve our
techniques and not limit the stories we bring to life by the technique
of animating them.

NRAMA: How do you weight things in regards to "introducing" a new character or concept to an audience (such as a Camelot 3000 or Frank Miller's Ronin)
versus presenting familiar characters and stories (Batman, Superman,
Wonder Woman, etc)? Do you feel that the audience for Motion Comics is
different than say, a general audience in a bookstore that may peruse
DC's trade paperbacks, and thus their familiarity with certain
properties may be differnet?

DN: We see it to our advantage to work with stories and
characters that have a strong consumer connection. While we will
initially prioritize better known characters and stories, as we
establish the slate and the form, we intend to expand to lesser known
characters and stories as we create a base. The strength of these
Motion Comics is in the story, not the popularity of the characters.
The audience for motions comics is the core comic fan and the core
digital entertainment consumer. Ideally, we'd like to gain the respect
of the core, published comic fan, while engaging a new and potentially
broader base, both for the Motion Comics and as a way to introduce the
comic books to new fans.

NRAMA: As mentioned earlier, clearly, the first two releases
have synergy and marketing behind them - how much will that play a role
in future releases? Going back to, say, Ronin - would fans expect to see that work as a Motion Comic six months out from that film's eventual release?

DN: Obviously having a core character currently in a major theatrical release like The Dark Knight is helpful, as is the positioning for Zack Snyder's Watchmen
that is gearing up for 2009. But for Warner Premiere we knew we wanted
to introduce the Motion Comics category itself as a concept at
Comic-Con to get the best understanding of how core fans would respond.
As for the future development slate, we will always look for
opportunities to leverage large promotional platforms in other parts of
our company, but will not be limited by that criterion.

NRAMA: Will Motion Comics be presenting original stories and characters?

DN: Our strategy for Motion Comics is to utilize existing
characters and stories. The concept is to bring comic experiences to
life, not necessarily to create a new art form in and of itself. We
will, however, stay nimble and poised to adjust this strategy if the
market suggests it is warranted.

Warner Premiere also has plans to develop other types of short form
digital content. The future is seemingly limitless and as we continue
to refine our plans we believe anything is possible for the digital
space.

NRAMA: With their debut, the Motion Comics are available on
iTunes, Xbox and Verizon Vcast. Will there be more outlets added in -
such as different phone service providers?

Thomas Gewecke: We’re very pleased with our initial launch
partners, and we expect to make Motion Comics broadly available across
a number of different digital distribution platforms.

NRAMA: What niche in an audience's entertainment diet do you see
Motion Comics filling or even replacing? Is this an "on the bus" read,
an “at work” read? At home?

DN: It's not our ambition to replace any comic experience, but
rather be additive to what fans already enjoy, or reach an audience
that does spend a significant amount of time actively engaged in the
space where Warner Bros. Digital Distribution programs Warner Premiere
Motion Comics.

NRAMA: How are the original creators of the works involved with the process?

DN: With the titles we have shared for the Comic-Con launch, we
have been fortunate enough to work with our peers at DC Comics to call
upon the original creators as ambassadors. The success of this category
is dependent upon finding the stories and creators who recognize that
this is a viable way to bring their creations to new and existing fans
in a creative new way. As I mentioned, our experience with Dave Gibbons
on Watchmen has been fantastic -- collaborative and supportive.
Dave will very likely to have more to say on the experience from his
perspective at Comic-Con.